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A man has been hit with a brick, stabbed and robbed in north London just moments after leaving a supermarket with a copy of Grand Theft Auto V.

The Asda store in Colindale close where the victim had been shopping before the attack Credit: Google Maps

The 23-year-old had been shopping at the Asda store in Colindale where he bought the newly-launched game soon after if went on sale at midnight. The attack was reported to police at around 1:20am this morning.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said the video game was stolen along with a watch and mobile phone, but that it is not clear whether this was the motive for the attack.

The victim is in a stable condition in hospital and a robbery investigation is under way.

Reviews of Grand Theft Auto V have, almost without exception, rated it very highly. The rare criticism has mostly focused on the apparent misogyny of the game:

GTA V is an imperfect yet astounding game that has great characters and an innovative and exciting narrative structure, even if the story it uses that structure to tell is hobbled at times by inconsistent character behaviour, muddled political messages and rampant misogyny.

– Carolyn Petit, gamespot

Women are, once again, relegated to supporting roles as unfaithful wives, hookers and weirdos ... It's fine to parody the idiotic misogyny of violent men, but how about doing it by providing their opposite?

– keith stuart, grand theft auto

The developer's progress makes the aspects of the game left in cultural stasis - the poorly drawn women, the empty cynicism, the unnecessarily excessive cruelty - especially agitating.

GTA V could make £1bn in its first year on sale. Credit: Rockstar Games

Experts are tipping Grand Theft Auto V to smash sales records and estimates suggest it could generate £1 billion during its first year on sale when gamers are predicted to snap up some 25 million copies.

In a message on its website, Amazon warned any orders placed after September 13th may not arrive until after tomorrow's release date because of high demand.

The Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series has accumulated sales of 135 million copies since its 1997 debut. GTA IV has reportedly sold more than 25 million copies since its 2008 release.

Tom Butler, social media editor of gaming site IGN.com, said GTA V's release would be the biggest entertainment release of the year.

Grand Theft Auto V will be the biggest entertainment launch of the year and possibly all-time with levels of consumer anticipation outstripping Harry Potter and Twilight.

With gamers queuing at midnight to be among the first to play and the developer boasting thousands of hours of game play, there's no surprise that we're likely to see an outbreak of GTA flu this September.

The gaming site polled 10,995 readers to ask whether they would take time off work on Tuesday when the GTA V goes on sale.

According to its findings, 5,059 readers (46%) said they booked the day off as holiday.